Gorbachev Ties Aid to Soviets to Global Peace

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev bluntly warned the West on Wednesday that hopes for a peaceful “new world order” depend on massive assistance to underwrite the Soviet Union’s political and economic reforms, which he said are now at their most critical point.

In his strongest appeal for aid, Gorbachev said the West is facing crucial decisions on whether to help the Soviet Union economically, and thus promote further political cooperation, or lose the opportunity presented by perestroika to build a lasting peace.

In Paris, however, a gathering of the world’s wealthiest nations warned Gorbachev that he must produce a concrete program to turn his crumbling economy from central planning to free-market principles before they will discuss the massive aid package he wants. (Story, D1)

“To me it is self-evident that if Soviet perestroika succeeds, there will be a real chance of building a new world order,” Gorbachev said in a lecture he delivered here as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for 1990.

“And if perestroika fails, the prospect of entering a new peaceful period in history will vanish, at least for the foreseeable future.”

Gorbachev was awarded the Peace Prize in October for helping to end the Cold War and allowing East European states to break with the communism that had been imposed on them after World War II by the Red Army.

“During the late 1980s and the early 1990s, we have seen dramatic changes in relations between East and West,” said Francis Sejersted, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, as he introduced Gorbachev to the 1,000 guests gathered in Oslo’s City Hall. “Old European nations have regained their freedom. The arms race is being reversed. . . .

“The committee found that one man had made a decisive contribution to this process--the president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, who has been described as the man responsible for starting the thaw.”

Gorbachev was interrupted twice by hecklers--one a woman refugee from Afghanistan and the other a gray-haired Norwegian man--who denounced the Soviet Union’s 10-year military intervention in Afghanistan. They were removed by police.

Later, at a joint press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, Gorbachev lost his temper when questioned by a local television reporter about the Soviet military crackdown in the Baltic republics. He accused the West of applying double standards there and failing to appreciate the complexity of the situation.

But, for the most part, Gorbachev basked Wednesday in the warm praise for his achievements over the past six years, a reminder of the old “Gorby, Gorby!” mania and a sharp contrast to the criticism he hears at home.

“We have seen that your policies are guided by an active and genuine will for peace,” Sejersted said, “and this is one of the reasons why we venture to hope that the pervasive process of change we are now experiencing will finally lead toward a better and more peaceful world.”

Gorbachev’s message was that for all this there is a price: the aid the Soviet Union needs to progress with its reform program.

“We are now approaching what might be called the crucial point, when the world community--and above all the states with the greatest potential to influence world developments--will have to decide on their stance with regard to the Soviet Union,” he said.

At the same time, Gorbachev made clear that the Soviet Union would not accept demands that it model itself after the West as a condition for this assistance, but would instead pursue reforms without deviating from the character of the country.

“Applying conventional wisdom to perestroika is unproductive,” he said. “It is also futile and dangerous to set conditions, to say, ‘We’ll understand and believe you as soon as you, the Soviet Union, come completely to resemble us, the West.’ ”

Yet Gorbachev acknowledged the concern of many Western leaders that the billions of dollars in aid the Soviet Union wants will be wasted if spent on reforming rather than fully changing the present system. He said that as part of an assistance program, his country must stabilize its “democratic process” within a “new constitutional structure,” intensify and broaden economic reforms to establish a mixed, market economy and take “vigorous steps to open the country” to the world economy.

“We realize that we have to carry out measures that would enable us really to open up to the world economy and become its integral part,” he said, pledging an end to the system that had guarded and preserved Soviet communism for seven decades.

“But at the same time we have come to the conclusion that there is a need for a kind of synchronization of our actions toward that end with those of the Group of Seven (the leading industrialized democracies) and of the European Community. In other words, we are thinking of a fundamentally new phase in our international cooperation.”

Looking ahead to the Group of Seven summit--which will bring together the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States in London in July--Gorbachev said the Soviet Union wants to discuss “a joint program to be implemented over a number of years.”

Although Soviet economists and some Americans advising them have suggested that the Soviet Union would need at least $15 billion a year and perhaps as much as $50 billion annually for five or six years, Gorbachev mentioned no figure and spoke of the commitment he is seeking in broad, largely political terms.

“If we fail to reach an understanding regarding a new phase of cooperation, we will have to look for other ways, for time is of the essence,” the Soviet leader said. “But if we are to move to that new phase, those who participate in and even shape world politics must continue to change, to review their philosophic perception of the changing realities of the world and of its imperatives. Otherwise, there is no point in drawing up a joint program of practical action.”

Although Gorbachev has been seeking an invitation to the annual conference for several weeks, President Bush agreed only this week, and then reluctantly, to his participation. A formula is now being worked out for Gorbachev to meet with the other leaders but not take part in the summit itself.

Gorbachev also expects to meet with Bush in Moscow at the end of this month to conclude a treaty reducing the two superpowers’ nuclear arsenals by a third, and he said they should discuss the next stage of disarmament at that time.

Reviewing the course of perestroika in his six years as the Soviet leader, Gorbachev said his country is “at a high point of perestroika’s crisis.”

“Our task is to stay the course while also addressing current everyday problems--which are literally tearing this policy apart--in such a way as to prevent a social and political explosion,” he said.

Gorbachev said that he continues to face strong resistance as he pushes for further reforms.

“Following the transformation of the philosophy of perestroika into real policy, which began literally to explode the old way of life, difficulties began to mount,” he said. “Many took fright and wanted to return to the past. It was not only those who used to hold the levers of power in the administration, the army and various government agencies and those who had to make room, but also people whose interests and way of life were put to a severe test and who, during the preceding decades, had forgotten how to take the initiatives and to be independent, enterprising and self-reliant.

“Hence the discontent, the outbursts of protest and exorbitant, though understandable demands, which if satisfied right away, would lead to complete chaos.

“Hence also the rising political passions and, instead of a constructive opposition, which is quite normal in a democratic system, one that is often destructive and unreasonable, not to mention the extremist forces, which are especially cruel and inhumane in areas of ethnic conflict.”